Percussionist Thomas Li is active as a chamber musician and performer of new music. A recent Master’s graduate from University of Toronto, he studied under the tutelage of Aiyun Huang, Beverley Johnston, Ryan Scott and Charles Settle. He has attended multiple summer festivals including Banff Centre’s Evolution: Classical and the Nief-Norf Summer Festival where he worked with members of Kronos Quartet and Mark Applebaum respectively. As an avid contemporary performer, Thomas was a member of University of Toronto’s Contemporary Music Ensemble as well as Toronto-based percussion quartet Kairos Quartet. He also took part in the recording of Elizabeth Ogonek’s chamber concerto, where are we now, released in an album on the Oberlin Music Label.
Thomas is also interested in integrating visual media with his playing, and aspires to dedicate his artistic voice to expressing personal emotions and preserving the collective narratives of his home city, Hong Kong. In his multiple Multimedia project, he is dedicated to understanding how cinematic language can help communicate contemporary musical gestures when the two art forms are paired together.
Get to know Thomas…Beyond the Bio!
Hobbies: bouldering, photography, pour-over coffee, art films
Musical influences: Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Leslie Cheung, Nicole Lizée, John Cage, Matthew Lau
Favourite food: Cantonese BBQ Pork on Rice
Least favourite food: Chicken Breast
Favourite music: contemporary percussion, math rock, R&B, orchestral, folk rock
Favourite album: Dance, No One’s Watching by Ezra Collective
Favourite movie: Cinema Paradiso, Ashes of Time, A Brighter Summer Day, Star Wars
Favourite musical theatre/opera: Wicked
Best quote from your teacher: “Let the drum sing!”
Favourite quote: “Do or Do Not, There is No Try” – Yoda, Star Wars
Favourite book: The Rest is Noise by Alex Ross
Latest Homework from Thomas
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Homework Assignments for the Week of November 9, 2025
Josh
Recommended minutes to practice: Enjoy your trip!! Before I see you next, try to figure out the next song you want to learn.
What to practice: “Spaceman” by the Killers, “Sunflower” by Post Malone
How to practice it most effectively: try to review these songs once before our next lesson to jog your memory.
How parents can support practice: help Josh pick his next song!
Shayne
Recommended minutes to practice: I know Shayne doesn’t have a drum set to practice on yet, so I’d recommend just listening to some songs he might want to try out.
How parents can support practice: Help Shayne pick some new songs for next week. We have been having a lot of fun playing along to songs like “Iron Man” so far.
Noah
Recommended minutes to practice: try to review this song, especially the structure and the kick pattern at least once or twice this week.
What to practice: work on playing through the song and smoothing out the changes in structure! Come up with some fun fills or transitions if you’d like as well.
How to practice it most effectively: focus on the sections that challenge you the most – fills, complicated kick patterns.
Finn
Recommended minutes to practice: review “clint eastwood” at least once this week and try to think of a new song to play!
What to practice: play along to the songs we’ve been working on – “Yellow,” “The Abominable Snow Cone,” and “Clint Eastwood”
How to practice it most effectively: try to read along to the music I’ve written for “Clint Eastwood”
How parents can support practice: help Finn come up with a new song to start learning next week – something with some variation and challenge preferably.
Mateo
Recommended minutes to practice: I know school can be busy at this time of year – if you can work in some time to review our songs this week that would be great.
What to practice: work on the fills for “Your Love,” as well as keeping up the endurance with your kick pedal and your right hand on the ride cymbal.
How to practice it most effectively: practice just playing fast on the kick – try to see what works for you to be able to play double strokes on the kick quickly. Also, the song is very fast at 100% speed, and I think you should figure out how to play the grooves in a way where you don’t necessarily need to play every kick note, but can still maintain the overall feel of the song.
Jared
Recommended minutes to practice: try to find some time to internalize and get familiar with the fills we worked on this week.
What to practice: listen along to the song and try to be able to play the fills as they come along, especially the new ones on the last page that we just learned. Also review the groove for the chorus (Specifically those hihats).
How to practice it most effectively: break down the feel of each fill, and figure out how to recreate them in a way that’s your own!
Koel
Recommended minutes to practice: I know midterms are around the corner, so I have 0 expectations for practicing this week. Good luck!!
What to practice: Great job with “Bring Me To Life” today! Keep working on the kick pattern for the Verse section in the song.
How to practice it most effectively: Play along to the YouTube video at 80-90% speed. Isolate and break down the individual grooves that are the most difficult, especially the “Verse” section with the complicated kick patter.
Assignments for the week of May 13-20
Josh Shuster
Keep working on “Livin on a Prayer,” focusing on the ride cymbal groove for the chorus, as well as the fill right before the guitar solo.
How to practice it most effectively: Practice the chorus (Ride cymbal) groove with and without the music! Maybe practice the song from YouTube at 0.75 playback speed.
Myles Jubé
Practice “Dreaming” on drum set – the full song now! And for next week try to play through what we’ve done for “Dreaming” on xylophone so far. Next week we’ll also try some new stuff!
How to practice it most effectively: have fun with it!
Finnian Romero
Keep working on “Livin on a Prayer,” focusing on the groove for the chorus, and the fills.
How to practice it most effectively: Practice the chorus (Ride cymbal) groove with and without the music! Maybe practice the song from YouTube at 0.75 playback speed.
Francisco Garcia
Use the link in your Drive to practice the groove in the first 4 bars of “locked out of heaven.” Try to figure out the kick groove and get the groove as fast as you’re able to. No pressure to make it as fast as the song yet, I just want to see if you can play / loop the groove correctly at whatever speed you can make it.
How to practice it most effectively: see if you can play on YouTube with the playback speed reduced.
Jared Portus
Keep doing what we were doing before – grooving along to songs, playing with the swing of the hi-hat or ride cymbal, and the loose-ness of the snare and kick hits in relation to your right hand. Come up with fills as well!
Practice the “throw / grab” motion when playing 16th note grooves on the hi-hats / ride (song to practice this to – Chelsea Reject “Kidulthood”)
Songs we played along to:
MF DOOM – “Figaro”
J Dilla – “Time: The Donut of the Heart”, “Don’t Cry” (has tempo changes that make it maybe not the best song to play along to)
Jacob Collier – “Time Alone With You (feat. Daniel Caesar)”
D’Angelo – “Devil’s Pie”
JID – “Money”
Albums to listen to if you have some time!
J Dilla – DONUTS
MF Doom / Madlib – Madvillainy
D’Angelo – Voodoo
A Tribe Called Quest – The Low End Theory
Koel Rayner
Keep practicing the groove for “Squabble Up,” make sure you’re playing the hi-hats correctly. Try to find where in the song the variations come in on the kick drum. We’ll try a new song this week.
I know you have exams coming up so absolutely no pressure if you don’t have time to practice this week.
Preferred Books for Keshav’s Students
Click to buy them here, and they’ll come right to your house! What could be easier?
STICK CONTROL
George Lawrence Stone’s Stick Control is the bible of drumming. In 1993, Modern Drummer magazine named the book one of the top 25 books of all-time. In the words of the author, it is the ideal book for improving: control, speed, flexibility, touch, rhythm, lightness, delicacy, power, endurance, preciseness of execution and muscular coordination, with extra attention given to the development of the weak hand.
RCM Technical Requirements for Piano
